The big move to multi-cloud is on, with 82% of today’s enterprises embracing a multi-cloud strategy. Today’s businesses understand that different application workloads require different types of cloud services to perform, whether they are private, public or hybrid.

But what happens to application performance when a business is trying to deliver a solution in nanoseconds? And what about when that solution is dependent on multiple clouds working in unison, as is the case with any digital transaction that orchestrates the purchase of products or services?

These are performance challenges that cloud service providers (CSPs) and their enterprise customers need to address to maximize their multi-cloud strategies, accelerate application performance and deliver a higher quality of experience to their users.

Interconnection empowers collaboration – The cloud is an inherently collaborative medium that has the power to increase productivity among people, applications and data. However, multiple cloud services working together to deliver different types of applications or services can only be effective if they are connected directly and securely to each other and the things that they serve. Ubiquitous, optimized interconnection that is globally distributed is needed and can only be achieved through faster, private links between CSPs and more cost-effective regional network service providers.

Interconnection improves performance and user experience – Most enterprises tend to add more bandwidth to address performance issues, however, real-world experience has shown that high bandwidth alone doesn’t solve your application performance problems or ensure user satisfaction. By enabling enterprises to extend their corporate networks to the edge, service providers can leverage proximity and fast, low-latency connections to increase performance, significantly improve application response-time and provide a better experience to users.

Interconnection expands choices, lowers costs and stimulates growth – For service providers and their customers, the cloud represents an opportunity to lower both CAPEX and OPEX costs. However, to gain the most savings, they need to also lower the cost of connecting to the cloud. This is best accomplished by choosing from a large pool of network and cloud providers on a global scale. Colocation facilities that already contain substantial cloud, network and vertical industry ecosystems create “gravity” that attracts more businesses, which in turn drives a more competitive marketplace for cloud and network services.

Taking a high-performance, cost-efficient, interconnected-cloud approach empowers CSPs to deliver differentiated cloud services to their customers and partners more quickly. Enterprises seeking to become interconnected digital businesses to compete and win in an increasingly “cloud-first” business environment will be drawn to service providers who think, act and grow their businesses in the same way.